The Associated PressPrince told George Lopez he wants to ban artists from covering his songs such as "When Doves Cry."

Prince has always been protective of his music, but this is a new level.

According to Fox News, he recently told George Lopez that he wanted to make covering songs illegal -- or at least covering his songs.

"My problem is when the industry covers the music," Prince said. "There's this thing called compulsory licensing law that allows artists through the record companies to take your music at will without your permission. And hat doesn't exist in any other art form... there's only one version of 'Law & Order.' There's several versions of 'Kiss' and 'Purple Rain.'"

The statement seems contradictory, however, because Prince is no stranger to doing covers himself. He performed Radiohead's "Creep" at Coachella a few years ago, plus Foo Fighters' "Best of You" at Super Bowl XLI in 2007.

Further, Prince has made money from other artists covering his songs, including The Bangles' "Manic Monday," Chaka Khan's "I Feel For You" and Sinead O'Connor's "Nothing Compares 2 U."

Spin magazine even got permission to release a CD of all Prince covers called "Purplish Rain" two years ago.

What do you think? Should the rules for allowing artists to cover songs be changed?

Imagine if "Glee" couldn't cover songs as easily as they currently do. In February, they passed Elvis Presley (who also didn't write most of his songs) and the Beatles for the most singles on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Elvis had 108 appearances on the charts; the Fab Four had 71. As of April 5, the cast of the hit Fox show had 131 songs (only one of which was an original) appear in the Billboard Hot 100.

What's your favorite cover song of all time? Vote in our poll or leave a comment below.